Brad May, centre, will play his 1,000th NHL game as a Maple Leaf, but the gritty forward is best known for his time with the Sabres. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)The game still has playoff implications — technically — but Brad May is more likely to be the centre of attention when the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night (7:30 p.m. ET).
May, the Leafs' 37-year-old grinder, will play in his 1,000th NHL contest against the team with which he enjoyed his greatest success.
"I had the most unbelievable experience in Buffalo," May, who was scratched from Tuesday's 4-1 win over New Jersey so he could reach his milestone against the Sabres, told the Buffalo News. "It’s so cool that it has come full circle, that I’m going to play this game against Buffalo. It’s so much a part of me and my family."
It's a must-win game for the Sabres (38-32-9, 85 points), who trail the New York Rangers by six points for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
For 10th-place Buffalo to make the playoffs, it must win its final three games, and the Rangers must fail to get a point in their remaining two. The Sabres must also contend with the ninth-place Florida Panthers, who are four points up on Buffalo with two games left on their schedule.
With the chances of their team returning to the playoffs for the first time in two years looking slimmer than Dominik Hasek, many of the Sabres fans who make the trek up the Queen Elizabeth Way for Wednesday's game might be more excited by the opportunity to salute May.
The Toronto-area native played his junior hockey between the Big Smoke and the Queen City, starring for the Niagara Falls Thunder of the OHL from 1988-1991.
Hockey fans in the Falls adored May for his exciting combination of talent and grit. Over his final two seasons with the Thunder, he scored a combined 70 goals and racked up 316 penalty minutes in 95 games.
One magical play
The Sabres were enamoured as well, selecting May with the 14th overall pick in the 1990 draft. May never really panned out as an elite scorer in his seven seasons in Buffalo — he notched a career-high 18 goals in 1993-94 — but the city's blue collar fan base holds him in high regard for his toughness and one magical play.
In the spring of 1993, the Sabres had gone 10 years without winning a post-season series, and the streak seemed likely to continue as Buffalo faced the top-seeded Boston Bruins in the first round of the Adams Division playoffs.
But the underdogs jumped out to a surprising three-games-to-none lead in the best-of-seven series, setting up a potential sweep in Game 4 at the old Memorial Auditorium.
The contest went into overtime tied at 5-5 when May took a pass from Pat Lafontaine near the Boston blue-line, undressed future hall-of-fame defencemen Ray Bourque, froze goalie Andy Moog by faking a shot and shovelled the puck home to send the Sabres into the second round.
The call by Sabres play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret ("May-day! May-day!") is one of the most famous in hockey history, and the image of a delirious May being mobbed by his teammates remains the most indelible of a 17-year career in which he has registered a modest 287 points (127 goals).
"Buffalo's a real hard-working city, blue collar, and they appreciate a player like that," Leafs forward Lee Stempniak, who grew up in western New York, told the Toronto Star. "He personifies that. For me, it's easy to see that loving relationship there."
The Sabres traded May to Vancouver in February 1998, and he also went on to play for Phoenix, Colorado and Anaheim, winning a Stanley Cup with the latter in 2007.
Toronto acquired him from the Ducks earlier this season for a sixth-round pick, and May has said he hopes to remain with the Leafs next season.
